In winding or rewinding of rolls of web material such as paper rolls on two drum winders it is common practice to apply a weight adjacent the top of the roll as it is being wound by means of rollers mounted on a rider roll beam which bear on the roll of web like material being wound. Generally such rolls are mounted in suitable bearings and are coupled together to rotate at the same speed. Generally such rolls are not driven directly by the roll being wound but are driven individually by means of separate motors or the like and are coupled together by some form of flexible coupling to ensure the rolls rotate at the same speed in the event their respective individual motors have different torques.
The beam carrying these rolls may be subject to a slight deflection and the coupling between adjacent rolls must also be able to accommodate slight angular deflections between the axes of rotation of adjacent rolls.
One common way of mounting and coupling adjacent ends of a pair of rider rolls mounted on a beam is to insert stub shafts extending from the adjacent ends of the rolls into a sleeve and to clamp the sleeve to each of the stub shafts, the sleeve preventing relative rotation of the rolls but accommodating slight angular deflection of its axis of one roll relative to an adjacent roll. The sleeve in turn is mounted in suitable bearing means supported from the beam itself.
In another variation of this technique instead of the sleeve being clamped to each of the stub shafts it may be pinned or otherwise secured thereto.
It is also known to pin the sleeve to one of the stub shafts and couple adjacent ends of the stub shafts together by means of pins projecting axially from one of the stub shafts into the end of the adjacent stub shaft.